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27 February 2012

First time round the bendy

It does seem from comments left on this site, and elsewhere on 'the net', that First are indeed planning to run bendy buses in Plymouth on the Park & Ride services. There will be 9 coming down from Scotland to replace the current double decker's. It is not known where the Enviros will be going but it has been suggested they are heading out of the area, possibly to Weston-Super-Mare but none of this has been confirmed. This is not the first time that bendy buses have hit the streets of Plymouth. In fact there have been quite a few over the years but up until now none of them have stayed. In 2001 First Manchester 2201 (10071 in new money) visited Plymouth and was used for free rides at the Western National Rally, which was held at Seaton Barracks. I don't think it was used in service at anytime. This bus was brand new at the time. Ironically it looks like it is still newer than the examples which are rumoured to be heading towards Plymouth as we are getting W reg buses. Having said that, if they are refurbished properly and given non dating registrations most passengers wouldn't know quite how old they are as the Wright body design has aged really well and still looks more modern that most buses we have in Plymouth, although Citybus hope to get their new Volvo Wright buses on the road in April which might just highlight the contrast of Citybus giving us new and First replacing their newest buses with much older second-hand ones. As always plans can change...

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6 comments:

So we're losing some of the very newest and highest spec buses in the fleet, which also operate the most highest profile routes in Plymouth.

In replacement we're getting twelve year old clapped out Glasgow cast-offs that have spent as much time broken then out on service, and which also have an extreme propensity of burning themselves out when they do actually get out onto the road.